Test Drive Unlimited for teaching driving in Real life

I have a sister that's learning to drive. I've let her run through some of my realistic driving simulators like Richard Burns Rally, but it doesn't have any traffic and basically any road signs worth follow due to the nature of the gameplay, but the physics is as good as real life. It could teach her how to get familiar with car behavior at the limits but not respecting other drivers..

We are using a PC with a logitech PS3 steering wheel that has a 900 degree rotation, realistic force feedback, brake and gas pedals and sequential stick shifter. I recently tried the Test Drive Unlimited game. The AI, traffic and road/road signs/lights are realistic, but the physics isn't are realistic as RBR('autobrake feature' is annoying and no way to 'disable' it - seems to be inherent feature in arcade racers..)

Anyone else using this game as a tool for teaching to drive? I know you can't just let someone do hours on this thing and go drive real life immediately. She still has to enroll in a real driving school. But we want her to have this 'extra' knowledge of driving you may not be able to learn in real life SAFELY, such as getting familiar with emergencies or avoiding emergencies totally..

IMO the best closed-wheel racing sim is 10tacle studios FIA:GTR2. There are some left in stores. It teaches a lot that can be applied to real driving. she can also try the demo of rFactor, though that rules in open-wheel more than anything.

I don't think you can really learn to drive by playing video games.
I can drive but I can't drift worth a HMM in "Grid".
Get your sister next to a driving instructor and learn by first hand experiance like every one else.

Hell Driving instructor's and test's are only to get you on the first rung of the ladder, then your always still learning how to drive.

The ONLY way to learn to drive is to learn to drive a real car with real controls, can you imagine her asking her instuctor were L1 is?
It would only confuse a non driver to try to learn from a game.

[edit on 9-7-2009 by Chukkles]

Originally posted by pilotx
IMO the best closed-wheel racing sim is 10tacle studios FIA:GTR2. There are some left in stores. It teaches a lot that can be applied to real driving. she can also try the demo of rFactor, though that rules in open-wheel more than anything.

Nice, cool, I actually know that game for its simulation nature and some friends I know that has it. Wish with luck, will be able to see one on stores

reply to post by Chukkles


I get your point. We actually let her take the controls of a real car once in a remote patch of highway. She went winding left and right all over the concrete, it was terrible! She also tried driving a kart and didn't brake!

Then I let her try some of my simulation games with the wheel set to realistic range of 900 degrees or 2.5 turns lock to lock. As I was expecting, did the same thing she did in real life, winding left and right and not braking... After a FEW days, she finally learned to drive straight, but still has to learn proper braking.

I don't actually let her know the myriad of buttons the PS3 wheel has. I had to press the buttons myself, only thing she has to take care of is the wheel, the shifter, brake, and throttle.

I'll suggest some Free (and/or) Open Source Software. Can't hurt to try, since they don't cost more than the time it takes to download and test them out. It would be neat to know if any work for you.

This might be interesting, but it's still very very new - so how much support and development might be there (if any?) is questionable. I'd suspect the developers may be in need of some user feedback on this one.
svc-driving-sim.sourceforge.net...

The next two have been around quite a bit longer. So there's a userbase, FAQs, and forums supporting them. They might be better than the first suggestion that was specifically made as a educational tool.

The Open Racing Car Simulator.
torcs.sourceforge.net...

And of course Racer...
www.racer.nl...

These simulators may not be as polished as the pay-for sims, but consider what the developers are working for. (Prestige, bragging rights, or for their own learning, not money.) I believe those sims should also be very user configurable. And there should be downloadable vehicles and tracks (if making your own is too difficult), so you should be able to find something appropriate and realistic enough for learning on.